OTA TV Channel Scans and SNOW??

[Lone Gunman]

OK, so I’ve been having problems picking up some OTA channels in my area now for some time. Latest scans done a while back only got me 18 channels, which is a little over half what I was getting before the the last redo of local channels? Since then the channel count has been up and down between 18 and 21 and most of the time it has been 18?

So today it is snowing like a b**ch and we’ve got about 5 inches on the ground and still coming. Not suppose to stop until later this evening. So since all 3 of my 10 foot FTA dishes are pointed West I switched over to OTA to see what the local weather was saying. With the snow I was expecting a couple of the 18 channels I was getting to be MIA but to my surprise all of them were there, even the weakest ones?? So I did a channel scan and low and behold I got 27 channels??? WTF?? That’s 9 more than I normally get??

Ennywho, I said all that to get to this question. Isn’t snow suppose to be like rain and kill part of the signal strength and if so, what would be the reason that I’m getting more OTA channels than I usually get on a clear sunny day?

 

[comfortably_numb]

I'm not an RF engineer or expert by any means, but could it be the snow helps the signal reflection?

 

[N5XZS]

Could be Tropo ducting condition. Did you Id any station's call letter and where is coming from?

 

[Lone Gunman]

Could be Tropo ducting condition. Did you Id any station's call letter and where is coming from?

ID call letters? Not sure what you are asking, but, all the channels I'm getting are channels I've gotten at some point before, just not consistently and not in the past couple of months.

 

[N5XZS]

Just look up on information's tv banner. This will show your station's ID with K or W call letters. That will help you get the information that way.

 

[Tower Guy]

Where are you located?

 

[Lone Gunman]

Location is about 15 miles due East of Lynchburg, Va. And yes, the call letters are all ones that I've gotten off and on before. Here's the TVTV.us listing output but I don't get any of the PBS channels OTA that are on this list. I get those from FTA Satellite only.

TVTV.us

Right now we've got about 11 inches of snow on the ground, and it's still snowing?? A WTF moment for sure cuz I'm 73 years old and I can't remember ever getting this much snow this early before and the first day of winter is still 12 days away?

 

[primestar31]

Location is about 15 miles due East of Lynchburg, Va. And yes, the call letters are all ones that I've gotten off and on before. Here's the TVTV.us listing output but I don't get any of the PBS channels OTA that are on this list. I get those from FTA Satellite only.

TVTV.us

Right now we've got about 11 inches of snow on the ground, and it's still snowing?? A WTF moment for sure cuz I'm 73 years old and I can't remember ever getting this much snow this early before and the first day of winter is still 12 days away?

It's all the "global warming" they are trying to convince us is happening. I'd say a far better name might be "climate change", and not necessarily warming...

 

[danristheman]

I think I got you topped I normally get about 16 channels In my area I got 60 now. It's not snowing just clear and cold. 25 degrees outside weird.

 

[danristheman]

Does anyone know what's going on? No solar events happening far as I know of. I have pickup wave tv from Louisville Kentucky. I live north of fort Wayne Indiana. Indy stations are coming in booming. Kzoo Michigan wwmt is coming in.

 

[N5XZS]

It's just a weather event, not solar sun spots. That's causing the Tropos ducting to go crazy.

Wish we have one in New Mexico, but very rare. You back east people are spoliled with TV signals spilling over.

 

[Lone Gunman]

UPDATE: Storm has passed it's 44* and the sun is shining. ALL those extra channels are GONE TODAY!! DAYUMNIT!!

 

[FTA4PA]

UPDATE: Storm has passed it's 44* and the sun is shining. ALL those extra channels are GONE TODAY!! DAYUMNIT!!

Wow, for a second there I saw 44 and thought it was inches! Glad the storm passed and sun is out. Bummer about the channels though.

 

[N5XZS]

Here this neat website will help you with for any Tropo ducting forecast!
www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_eeu.html

Hope this helps for any future forecast. Have fun!

 

[N5XZS]

Finally got the link to work as listed up there.

 

[Lone Gunman]

No, we didn't get 44" (inches) but we did get 11.5", and, that set a NEW SNOWFALL RECORD for December in the Lynchburg, Va area. So much snow I think it may have damaged my Raydx Dish that was pointed WEST @139w during the snow fall??? Won't know for sure until it gets warm enough to work on it outside but right now it has NO SIGNALS on any satellite location.

Looked at that website but sad to say it's all greek to me? I switched to the Eastern North America map for Sunday but it doesn't show anything over Virginia? There's stuff North and South of us but nothing over VA?

Ennywho, at least now I have a reason for what happened and therefore know that it's not likely to happen often enough to be any real advantage. So it will be 18 channels like before.

Thanks guys, it was a learning experience!!